Mathew Brady CDV of Slave Dealer, Alexandria, Virginia

CDV showing a group of Union soldiers standing with a horse and buggy at the site of a former slave pen, with sign reading, "Price, Birch & Co. / Dealers in Slaves." Mathew Brady: Washington DC, n.d., ca 1862. With Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries imprint on verso.

James H. Birch and Charles M. Price operated the largest slave pen in Alexandria, Virginia beginning in 1858. The building's orientation within the city, midway between the urban center and farmland to the west, allowed for the efficient containment and transport of men, women, and children before and after slave auctions. However, following the invasion and capture of Alexandria by the Union Army in May 1861, the facility was converted to a military prison.

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